With the Canadian dollar rocketing upward by 25% against the U.S. dollar since March, the benefits of foreign diversification are to be had with less gnashing of teeth. That is, if a long-term Canadian investor were to begin diversifying outside the country now, their U.S. assets will likely spend more ...

Many people think recent weakness in the U.S. dollar marks the beginning of a lengthy decline. With the global flight to safety waning, the natural tendency of a debased currency is coming to the fore. Indeed, net short selling of the U.S. dollar on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange during the ...

The recent decline in the U.S. dollar again puts the spotlight on whether or not investors need to hedge currency exposure when investing in foreign markets. Are the costs worth bearing? I’d like to pass on some additional thoughts to a post I did a little while ago.

The price of gold has rebounded as the financial crisis drags on but the process of consolidating the weak with the strong is well advanced. How many more big names are left to implode and fuel further gains in the price of gold? The supply is dwindling it would seem.

The 25% plunge last week in the Baltic Dry index is not good news for those hoping for a mild recession in the global economy. The index measures the cost of shipping raw materials by ocean tanker and is considered a leading indicator of the direction of the world economy. ...

Some analysts say a big-picture trend presently unfolding involves hedge funds and other players unwinding bets on commodities/foreign currencies and plowing the proceeds into U.S. financial and other stocks. They are doing this for valuation reasons and as a haven against weakening economies overseas.

Plenty of gloomy books have appeared on the current financial crisis and various aspects thereof. I found 13 of them (as listed below) a few weeks ago while digging around for some summer reading. I was tempted to read several of them -- but as it turned out, some work ...

Could the stocks of U.S. exporters be the next asset class to invest in -- as the typically delayed impact of falling real exchange rates is felt? The U.S. dollar has depreciated approximately 25% in real terms (exchange rates adjusted for inflation) since early 2002. That would seem to be ...

The Federal Reserve is truly facing a quandary. The U.S. economy is weak and getting weaker but if the Fed lowers its discount rate, it will fan the inflationary infernos building in China, India and other emerging countries that peg their exchange rates to the U.S. dollar (as part of ...